Relentless (1989 film)

Relentless is a 1989 American crime thriller film directed by William Lustig and starring Judd Nelson, Robert Loggia and Leo Rossi. The film follows two LAPD officers on a hunt for a serial killer.

Relentless was the first in a series of four films starring Leo Rossi as detective Sam Dietz trying to stop a serial killer. The three sequels were all filmed and released straight to video within three consecutive years from 1992 to 1994.

Plot
Sam Dietz is a rookie Los Angeles detective recently transferred from New York City. He is paired up with veteran detective Bill Malloy in order to find and stop a serial killer. The killer is Arthur "Buck" Taylor, the son of a former LAPD cop whose motive for killing is frustration over not having been accepted to the force and failure in the eyes of his father. Taylor chooses his targets by randomly looking up their names in the phone book and skillfully covering up his tracks by using his skills and knowledge that he learned while on the force. While in pursuit of Taylor, both Dietz and Malloy become his next planned targets for murder.

Production
After the success of Maniac Cop, producer Leonard Shapiro of Shapiro-Glickenhaus Entertainment wanted to do another picture with director William Lustig, and presented him with a bunch of scripts that had been submitted to the company, Lustig came across a script by Phil Alden Robinson called "Sunset Slayer" that he thought was especially good, but Shapiro's company ran into financial problems, Lustig ended up making the film for CineTel Films, and changed the title of the film to Relentless, which was the original title of the 1985 Sam Raimi movie Crimewave, Lustig had contacted Raimi and asked him permission to use the title, Raimi approved, and he was given a special thanks in the film’s end credits.

Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 33% based on reviews from 6 critics.

Sequels
Relentless was followed by three direct-to-video sequels, forming the Relentless film series.
 * Dead On: Relentless II (1992)
 * Relentless 3 (1993)
 * Relentless IV: Ashes to Ashes (1994)